More on “Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) is equivalent to Major General” misnomer etc

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(The below mentioned is the second part of the series. Readers are again requested to keep the discussion forum dignified and not to degenerate members of other services and cadres. Though I am totally for freedom of speech and expression, undignified and abusive comments and comments with personal remarks shall be deleted. Counter-logic and difference of opinion is more than welcome though.)


The issue of equivalence of status and pay has long been a controversial one. The contention of the 6th CPC that there is an established relativity between the Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) and Maj Gen is flawed and perhaps emanates from an incorrect interpretation of the Warrant of Precedence which lists a Major General equivalent to a Joint Secretary to Govt of India. Firstly, Note 1 to the current WoP makes it amply clear that the order of precedence is meant for ceremonial purposes only. Secondly, it is not the SAG that has been equated with a Major General but the appointment of a Joint Secretary to Govt of India and that too only for ceremonial purposes. Merely because a Joint Secretary GoI happens to be an officer of the SAG would not automatically mean that all SAG officers become equivalent to Major Generals. In fact, SAG level officers also hold the appointment of ‘Director to Govt of India’ under the Central Staffing Scheme (CSS) till they are empanelled by Govt of India as Joint Secretaries. While SAG is a grade, Joint Secretary to GoI is an appointment. SAG officers who are empanelled and holding the appointment of Joint Secretary to GoI under the Central Staffing Scheme can alone (if at all) be compared with Major Generals. Unfortunately, even the past pay commissions have been treating SAG officers at par with Major Generals for pay purposes. Traditionally however, certain SAG officers have even been equated with Colonels / Brigadiers of the Army, a very close example would be that of an MES Chief Engineer (SAG) who holds interchangeable charge with a Brigadier of the Corps of Engineers. While the Maj Gen-JS to GoI equivalence from the WoP has been taken as the basis of equation of pay, the same has not been done for Lt Generals. A Lt General who features on Article 24 of the current WoP has been granted a scale two steps lower than a DG of CPOs who is junior to Lt Gen and is placed on Article 25. Featuring on the WoP depends upon the appointment of a person and not his grade, to take an example, a Chief Secretary to State Govt within his state is featured on Article 23 (equivalent to Army Commander / Secy to Govt of India) but when the same officer is outside his State, his position drops to Article 25 (below even a Lt Gen). Coming back to the self-created interpretational equivalence articulated by the 6th CPC - a DIG has nothing in common with a Brigadier except the rank badges. 100% of directly recruited IPS officers attain the rank of DIG while less than 8% make it to Brigadier in the Army. An IPS officer reaches the rank of DIG in 14 years (Please refer to Rule 3 C (i) and Proviso of Rule 3 of IPS Pay Rules, 2007 published in Gazette of India on 21 Feb 2008) whereas it takes 28 years to become a Brig in the defence services. Till now the rank of a DIG was placed between a Lt Col and a full Colonel.

The nomenclature / designation confusion : It is sad but we have been made to believe the Maj Gen – JS GoI equivalence since long and timely action was not taken about it. The problem lies somewhere else. Earlier the Secretarial ranks were differently nomenclatured than today and the hierarchy was as follows : -

Rank 1 : Asst Secy Govt of India (Article 61 of Old WoP)

Rank 2 : Under Secy Govt of India (Article 57 of Old WoP)

Rank 3 : Addl Dy Secy to Govt of India (Article 45 of Old WoP)

Rank 4 : Dy Secy to Govt of India (Also on Article 45 of Old WoP)

Rank 5 : Joint Secy to Govt of India (Article 29 of Old WoP - was equated with a Maj Gen)

Rank 6 : Addl Secy to Govt of India (Article 27 of Old WoP)

Rank 7 : Secy to Govt of India (Article 26 of the old WoP. Whereas Lt Gen was on Article 24 while GOsC-in-C were on Article 16)


This with time was later changed to the following nomenclature :

Rank 1 : Under Secy to Govt of India

Rank 2 : Dy Secy to Govt of India

Rank 3 : Director

Rank 4 : Joint Secy to Govt of India (still cleverly equated with Maj Gen since in the old warrant such was the case)

Rank 5 : Addl Secy to Govt of India

Rank 6 : Secy to Govt of India

Rank 7 : Cabinet Secretary


Hence, while the Maj Gen – JS equation was cleverly maintained, it was not realized by the services or even by the govt that the erstwhile Secretarial Rank 5 of Jt Secy had now become Addl Secy to GoI. In fact going by the changed logic, today’s Joint Secretary should have been equated with a Lt Col (equivalent to Dy Secy to GoI / Rank 4 under the old nomenclature). We just stuck to designations and not to the actual hierarchy that was changed and re-named over the years. Moreover, if we keep aside the appointment equation which has always been confusing, the length of service equation as was maintained is clear as a crystal and this should have been used as a benchmark to determine scales and status even in the past :-

(a) Members of the ICS with 30 years of service were equated with Brigadiers commanding Infantry and Cavalry Brigades on Article 32 of the Old Warrant. Other Brigadiers featured on Article 35.

(b) Colonels of all Arms and Services and Lt Colonels of Indian Medical Service (now AMC) were on Article 38 and so were officers of the ICS with 23 years’ service and also Chief Engineers (now SAG). The rank of DIG was listed on Article 45 of the Old Warrant.

(c) Lt Colonels were listed on Article 47 of the Old Warrant alongwith ICS officers with 18 years of service.

(d) Majors were listed on Article 59 with ICS officers with 12 to 18 years’ service and IP (Indian Police – now known as IPS) officers with 15 to 20 years of service.


The status equation as on date leaves much to be desired though.



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